Well Murphy use to have allergies for storage and dust mites, but no outdoor allergies. We switched him to raw and he got so much better.

He has been really itchy lately so we got the full panel done including dietary.

He is allergic to beef, pork, turkey, chicken, duck, cats, human dander, and a whole whack of outdoor pollens :(

Were going to collect the whole pack on Friday. Poor dog.

So now were switching from raw to kibble :(

I was wondering what measures people took for dogs allergic to pollens?

I don't understand why you are taking your dog off raw food if he got so much better on it??

Misswager as Murpy has not developed an allergic reaction to his raw food I would expect he will in turn react to any food you give him as allergic reactions develop over time to a given substance and I would suggest that you speak to your vet about starting on antihistamine tables now before an allergy develops to kibbles.

Once owned a dog allergic to daffodils and we gave her 3 Piriton a day whilst they were in bloom, she was a GSD although that has no bearing on it as far as I know, mind you I would not buy a dog that was born of a parent that had a high degree of intolerance to everyday allergens.

I had a lovely gsd that suffered from Demodex as a puppy and this never cleared as she went into adulthood which caused her immune system to be non active. She spent the whole 6 years of her life on and off ABs for the terrible sores she suffered on her skin due to allergies. Piriton did not make any difference for her. Eventually after trying everything possible she went to the vet. college in Bristol where they created a serum from her own skin to inject back to try to relieve the allergies, these were injected back every couple of days, but still didn't work. She was allergic to everything you can think of, including from time to time ME, if I stroked her it would set off a reaction, also allergy to grass caused a problem. The weeping sores could cover her body in 36 hours without ABs. After 6 years of suffering we decided with many tears that we should give her peace and she was pts. A more loving, kind and gentle dog could not have been found and because of this I always believe that God sent us one of his angels to love for a few years.
Allergies are awful to control and my heart goes out to you as not all are controlled with food, sometimes it is just life that causes the reactions, if if was just food then that would be easy to control, but when walking on grass or being stroked as well as all the pollens, dust mites etc are to blame then it is so difficult. I even tried acupuncture and a noted animal healer but to no avail.

ps she was on the most bland Wafcol food with veg as allergic to most meat.

If he is really itchy lately I wouldn't rule out environmental issues - you might find that there is a particular pollen that's causing the raised allergic response.  Did your vet do the York test?  This test only looks at native species and will not catch anything more unusual.  Look in your garden to see what is out - there are many autumn flowering things looking fabulous at the moment and these may be part of the problem.

Many dogs that show an allergic response to food find it much easier to tolerate in raw form - I'd be very wary of going back to kibble.  I'd be more inclined to use a single source protein for a period of time to assess his response.  I'd then look at adding the others one at a time to see if one food causes more of a problem. Be cautious about rice too.  How high were his scores on the food section?

I have a range of 'tools' in my arsenal for my itchy boy.  As a result of his York test he is now on monthly immuno-therapy injections but number two in our coping regime is a wash with very dilute Hibiscrub after every walk - it's great at removing dust, mud, and pollen and makes a very noticable difference.

When my dog had the York test it came out that he was allergic to all sorts of things and it sounded scarey. Once I looked into it fully I discovered that it actually meant that he could have an intolerance - not that he did have.
All sorts of foods were on the list, practically every meat you can imagine but at such slight degrees that it wasn't worth worrying about. His diet is now varied but I do include lots of raw. The worse one was meadowgrass and it's proved to be the case - it's a contact allergy.
He also had the immuno-therapy injections, went on for about 18 months before we stopped. Sadly there wasn't an improvment at all so we called it a day.
He's been really itchy lately and I'm pretty certain it's since I cut the grass last Saturday. He'd been fine for a few weeks, I cut the grass and by Sunday evening he was scratching and made himself really sore.
I like the idea of the wash after every walk - I actually decided that next time I cut the grass he's having a bath shortly afterwards and future walks that include walking in long grass I'll wash his legs and tummy.

A friend of mine's dog has a similar list of allergies to your dog, causing bad skin and constant poops, and she put her dog on Wafcol Salmon and potato and he has improved no end since.

Hi guys, thanks for all your replies,

Perry: He has been itchy for quite some time now, getting hot spots etc etc since last October. I switched his diet to raw about 2 years ago and in the last year its been getting worse. I should have clarified that its not a 'new' thing.

I understand that some dogs might be allergic to cooked forms of food and not raw. We thought we would change his diet to a fish kibble (TOTW) and see if any improvements take place.

He scored high (3) on chicken (he got it as RMB) and milk
He scored 1 on Pork, Beef and Turkey

So I am not sure what score his outdoor profiles are? We will find out on Friday

I used to have a very allergic dog.  He spent about 2 years on steroids from the vet, but I didn't really see much improvement and of course there are side effects which meant that we then had more problems.   In those days the vet poo-pooed the idea of food being the culprit, but I did find that vegetarian dog food (Linda McCartney) made a HUGE difference after trying everything else.  Sadly the food was only available for about 6 months :(  So it was back to finding a solution.  In the end I put him on Piriton and it made a lot of difference and kept him comfortable.

If you do decide to use Piriton (chlorphenamine maleate 4 mg) the vet will be able to advise you on the dosage and frequency.  Not sure whether the 'One a Day' are safe for dogs ;)

Thanks! We have tried Piriton as well it doesnt seem to make a big difference with him. We have also had other antihistamines but nothing seems to work effectively.

>He scored high (3) on chicken (he got it as RMB) and milk
>He scored 1 on Pork, Beef and Turkey

The level of reaction is scored from 0 to 5.  I wouldn't be too worried about 1's, not that bothered about 2's, but cautious about 3's and certainly eliminating completely from the diet anything scoring 4 and 5's.

You still have lamb and duck as easy to get options and, as you've already mentioned, fish too.  Don't be tempted to leap from raw to kibble immediately.  Kibble has other ingredients which can make an allergy prone dog run hot so take it slowly.  I'd say that you could look at removing chicken from the diet but leave everything else for a period of one month - 6 weeks to see if you get an improvement.  Chilcken is prettty easy to drop anyway and you could give lamb breast for good 'bone-in' meals or buy the odd turkey drumstick (v cheap in Tesco).  Turkey gets easier to find from October onward and many butchers will have spare necks in December which are a great source of bone.  A raw fed dog will need offal and in the small quantities you need then ox or pig liver will be fine I'm sure.

Let us know how it goes on Friday - I'm surprised your vet is making you wait that long if the results are in - and fingers crossed you get low scores on environmental allergens.